The Empire-building that once was?

Until recently there were two kinds of people in the worldmdashones whorsquod seen and therefore wouldnrsquot stop talking about eight seasons 73 episodes of the HBO show Game of Thrones GoTmdashin GIFs memes quotes and charactersThe second being those who hadnrsquot and actively wished to stay away from the first lotmdashexplicitly mentioning so sometimes even in their TwitterTinder bios I belong to the latter demographicmdashthat tells you not so much into fantasy fictionBut not for lack of having tried though Only the user interface of the app Hotstar was so screwed up that after watching GoT S1 E1 I accidentally pressed S2 E1 assuming it was the second episodemdashrealising in little time all those who Irsquod first seen had already died Gave upThat GoT as a global phenomenon for an imagined historical series about blood and lust greed and betrayal with exquisite production design would spawn regional variants is a given Empire on HotstarDisney directed by Mitakshara Kumar created by Nikhil Advani and his company Emmay is one of themWhatrsquos the difference though That GoTrsquos Jon Snow with even his parentage under discussion is no Zahiruddin Mohammed lsquoBabarrsquo from Empire Because Babar who eventually founded the Mughal dynasty in preBritish India defeating Delhirsquos Ibrahim Lodirsquos army was realA painting from BaburnamaFurther he wrote a memoir Baburnama minutely observingrecording his life and times that as Islamic literaturersquos first autobiography has no parallel in Asian history of late 15th early 16th Century That book has gapsmissing chapters from his life and has passed on multiple hands and translations since he wrote the original in TurkicThe first thing you notice about young Babur still is the deep influence of his maternal grandmother Aisan Daulatmdashcoaxing him into a warrior king with his sword Alamgir Just so hersquos not as deeply inspired by his genteel father Umar Sheikh Mirzamdashmore inclined towards poetry and artsWhich also places women notably Baburrsquos sister Khanzada as quite central to the kingrsquos courtmdasheven if obviously absent from the warring army In Empire the alwaysspectacular Shabana Azmi plays Aisan DulatYoursquore as struck by her as the stunning looking female leads Which is to take away nothing from their performances Or the equally good looking men only that yoursquove seen them beforemdashKunal Kapoor who plays Babur Rahul Dev loyal lieutenant Wazir Khan Dino Morea the antagonist Shaybani KhanThe series is based on Alex Rutherfordrsquos Empire of the Moghul Raiders from the North which I havenrsquot read The closing credit suggests the script has been vetted by a historian Syed Ejaz HussainThere are wellknown chunks from Baburrsquos battles in India chiefly against the coalition of the Mewar kingdom Rana Sangha thatrsquos not there on the show Those singularly obsessing over every historical factcheck though must first unsee MughaleAzam There was no Anarkali in recorded world historyWhich is anyway about men killing men establishing important dates for battles Making you wonder if we continued at the same rate wersquod ever have to worry about climate changemdashwith humans annihilated over conquests for landegogreed anyway Mythology reinforces thisOnly that perhaps wars back then werenrsquot simply about old men talking and young men dying Perhaps the king himself defying death literally led from the frontYes Baburrsquos story of Central Asia starting with Farghana seems far in time Or not I thought when Babur brokers peace with Shaybani Khan in return for safe passage for his associates and family from Samarkand As did Americamdasha corporate empire with no overt territorial ambitionsmdashfrom Taliban Afghanistan in 2021Building an armymilitia from the young in the wilds with no formal kingdom to call his own Babur mounts another attack on Samarkand This time with help from Tajiks among othersThe Tajik war hero Ahmad Shah Massoud had similarly been fighting against the Taliban for Afghanistan everyday for 25 yearsmdashuntil he was killed through deceit in 2001 His son in Panjshir valley pretty much Central Asia in north Afghanistan is standing with the gun again as we speakHistory itself feels less distant when you consider the years between 1939 WWII began to 1980 is the same as between 1980 and 2021 Fantasy fiction evokes no such intellectual curiosity Neither does rote learning of school text for annual examsmdashafter Babur Humayun Akbar Jehangir Shah JahanhellipFor those who believe they were made to read ldquotoo much Mughal historyrdquo have obviously not read ldquotoo much historyrdquo Therersquos indeed as much of it on all dynasties Cholas to Chalukyas Mauryas to Marathashellip Most students donrsquot go beyond Class X As concept for a show there is no end to the Empire But it isnrsquot GoTmdashfor the twisted binge worthiness its followers evidently swear by Maybe itrsquos not complex enoughNeither are public discourses on historical figures Canrsquot be when you deem anyone as wholly a hero or villain Babur is no exception A series competently put together is a start nonetheless Books lend greater depth obviously Baburrsquos own is a great place to begin tooMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper